Q: What’s it like working up here in the winter?

A: If you can imagine trying to operate and do anything we do on an ice rink or in snowy conditions. So everything changes. Everything is more challenging. Everything is more delayed. It’s definitely unique in a fire department to operate in, but we’ve been operating in these conditions for 120-plus.

Q: What’s the hardest part?

A: Some of the biggest challenges that we come across are getting to an incident, road conditions, steep driveways covered in ice and snow and narrow shoulders on the highway.

Q: When happens when you respond to a call and find the road isn’t properly plowed?

A: We will call in for a plow to come up to our area. We have loaders in our fire station that we can use as well.

Q: And when that doesn’t work?

We carry snowshoes on our vehicles so we put a set of snowshoes on and grab our over-the-hill medical bag and hike into incidents.

Q: We’re expecting as much as six feet of snow by the end of the week. How do you find all the fire hydrants?

A: We’re going to find hydrants that are pretty well buried. Our department is very diligent about clearing out hydrants with loaders and having off-duty firefighters go out with shovels and really make sure that they’re accessible.

According to fire officials, the effort to build a new station began in late 2007. Here's the history of the project, in the words of the Menlo Park Fire Protection District:

That effort first started in late 2007 by validating that the fire station was in the proper strategic location. Fortunately it was, but unfortunately it would have to be enlarged in order to support modern emergency deployment that requires a drive through station for safety, a seismically safe engineering design and a modern infrastructure that can support more personnel and apparatus, for the next 65 – 70 years, which the existing site could not accommodate. So the adjoining property and home behind the Station were purchased in 2008 and re-zoned.

The project slowed and stalled during the worldwide recession as the District tightened its belt and focused all of its resources on finishing Fire Station 2, in East Palo Alto. In November 2016, the Fire Board authorized the Fire Chief to move forward with the rebuilding of the fire station and awarded General Contractor Gonsalves and Stronck (G&S) a “not to exceed” contract for $7,547,400.00, as the lowest, qualified, bidder.

The EMS building was built in 1996, and commissioners back in 2012 discussed a number of ongoing issues, such as the septic system, bathroom fungus, stucco and garage door issues, roof gutter discharge, misaligned doors, landscaping and drainage concerns, heaving floors and an overall lack of space.